[meteorite-list] Is 3He a cometary marker?

[E.P. Grondine]

Hi Doug, all - 

Becker and Poreda's work with 3He in fullerenes at the PT boundary has never been duplicated in any lab. I don't know why this is, but I have a question: Is 3He a cometary marker?

This should be an easy question to answer, simply by grabbing dust samples during any meteor shower and analyzing them.

I also wonder about 3He capture when a Long Period Comet becomes a Short Period Comet. It would seem to me that if it were in the inner solar system long enough before accreting with another body (say 6 or 7 million years or so), then the comet would accumulate 3He from the Sun, particularly on close passes near to it.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas